Paramount kinda-sorta denies reports that Kevin Costner is ending Yellowstone

The other week, Deadline reported that Kevin Costner was causing some grief on the set of Yellowstone, since he wasn’t committing to being on set the amount of time necessary to film his part in the epic family drama. He plays Dutton family patriarch John Dutton, so if you don’t have Costner, you don’t really have a show.

Reportedly, rather than accommodate Costner’s schedule, Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan and his team were planning to instead just end the show a little early — the current fifth season would be the last — and start in on a new series starring Matthew McConaughey. After all, with spinoffs 1883 and now 1923 going strong, the original Yellowstone show isn’t as important as it once was. Paramount could drop it and the Yellowstone universe could continue without incident.

Deadline’s report set off a firestorm, and now a spokesperson from Paramount Network has finally responded. “We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come,” they said. “Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner.”

Paramount hopes Kevin Costner will be part of Yellowstone “for a long time to come”

I wonder if it’s a little too late to put the genie back in the bottle. For instance, while the spokesperson says that Paramount hopes for Costner to be involved with Yellowstone “for a long time to come,” they don’t deny that he’s leaving, or that the show may be coming to a premature end. After all, even if the original series concludes, Costner could still make cameo appearances on McConaughey’s hypothetical successor show. That would qualify as him being “a big part of Yellowstone,” wouldn’t it?

Also, they don’t say Costner will be a part of Yellowstone for a long time to come, only that they “hope” he will. We’re through the looking glass here, people.

Or maybe I’m just being conspiratorial. Perhaps we’ll learn more when Yellowstone returns for the second half of its fifth season sometime this summer.

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